The Korea Herald

[Zaki Ladi] Obama’s M.E. malady extends from Egypt to Afghanistan

PARIS ― No sooner did U.S. President Barack Obama welcome home American troops from Iraq and laud that country’s stability and democracy than an unprecedented wave of violence ― across Baghdad and elsewhere ― revealed the severity of Iraq’s political crisis. Is that crisis an unfortunate exception, or, rather, a symptom of the failure of Obama’s Middle East diplomacy, from Egypt to Afghanistan?Upon taking office, Obama set four objectives in the Middle East: stabilize Iraq before leaving it; wit

Feb. 15, 2012

[Zaki Ladi] Obama’s M.E. malady extends from Egypt to Afghanistan

[Peter Singer] The ethics of Internet piracy

PRINCETON -- Last year, I told a colleague that I would include Internet ethics in a course that I was teaching. She suggested that I read a recently published anthology on computer ethics -- and attached the entire volume to the email.Should I have refused to read a pirated book? Was I receiving stolen goods, as advocates of stricter laws against Internet piracy claim?If I steal someone’s book the old-fashioned way, I have the book, and the original owner no longer does. I am better off, but sh

Feb. 15, 2012

[Peter Singer] The ethics of Internet piracy

Mitt Romney’s pain is President Obama’s gain

The rest of the country may be tiring of it, but the drawn-out, high-decibel battle for the Republican presidential nomination is just fine with the Obama campaign.Why? Because the president’s strategists still expect to be facing Mitt Romney in the general election, and his unexpectedly tough fight to sew up the nomination has forced him to keep emphasizing his credentials as a conservative instead of moving toward the center, where the swing voters are.“The long primary fight is driving indepe

Feb. 15, 2012

China’s Xi should take lesson in U.S. creativity

An executive in the Shanghai office of an American private-equity firm decided to conduct an experiment with two groups of MBA interns. He gave the same project to a team from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and to a team from a leading business school in China. One group of students gave a well-balanced and coherent presentation. The members of the other team took turns upstaging one another for personal glory and ended up with contradictory conclusions. No one should be su

Feb. 15, 2012

China’s Xi should take lesson in U.S. creativity

Ensuring Valentine diamond isn’t tainted by blood

It being the feast of Saint Valentine, today (Feb. 14) is a favored moment to give or receive that ultimate lovers’ gift: a diamond. This year, however, isn’t a good one for those who want to know for sure that the stone’s origins are above reproach. That’s because the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, the international regime designed to disconnect human suffering from the rough-diamond supply chain, is losing its sparkle. As the chairman of the process for 2012, the U.S. is positioned to

Feb. 15, 2012

How far the U.S., democracy have fallen in Egypt

Nothing better illustrates America’s sliding status in today’s Arab world than Egypt’s decision to try 16 Americans who work for pro-democracy groups there.On the surface, the strange story of this “criminal” case looks far less important than the Syrian government’s repression of its people. But this crisis has the potential to wreck U.S. relations with Egypt, a country that is still considered a key ally. And these charges graphically illustrate the decline of U.S. leverage in the new Middle E

Feb. 14, 2012

Fairer presidential pardons

Spurred by a study showing that whites were four times likelier than minorities to receive a presidential pardon, the House Judiciary Committee has asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to explain changes he plans to make in the pardon process. Eliminating disparities is easier said than done, but some reforms are obvious.Although presidents can issue pardons for any reason and without consulting anyone, typically applications are processed by the Justice Department and then forwarded with r

Feb. 14, 2012

The overlooked legacy of Ronald Reagan: Decency

Every Republican presidential candidate claims to be the heir to Ronald Reagan’s legacy. For years, Republican partisans have carried Reagan’s memory before them as the ancient Israelites carried the Ark of the Covenant. Just invoking his name proved your ideological purity, and would smite the dreaded RINO (Republican in name only).Problem is, those who most fervently claim to adhere to Ronald Reagan’s principles don’t seem to understand Reagan’s greatest principle: decency.Ronald Reagan practi

Feb. 14, 2012

The overlooked legacy of Ronald Reagan: Decency

Romney is dangerously naive on foreign policy

Mitt Romney appears to have all the foreign-policy savvy of someone who once visited Euro Disney, and it’s freaking me out. Not to say that President Obama is any more knowledgeable on that front, but at least he seems aware of his limitations, outsourcing foreign leadership to the French, the Brits, Hillary Clinton and private contractors.Never has the world been so interconnected, with power and influence becoming decentralized and regionalized. America’s problems ― economic or otherwise ― can

Feb. 14, 2012

[Daniel Fiedler] Invest in Korea at your own risk

Once again the democratic party of South Korea, now called the Democratic United Party, is railing against the KORUS Free Trade Agreement. The DUP is promising to repeal the agreement should they gain a majority in the April elections. As an outsider observing this obsession against the agreement, I often wonder if it is simply a political tactic to appeal to their base in the countryside or if it is based on an unfortunate holdover of a more xenophobic past. I wonder whether the DUP will also d

Feb. 14, 2012

[Daniel Fiedler] Invest in Korea at your own risk

No easy way to halt carnage in Syria

In 1982, I interviewed Syrian Information Minister Ahmed Iskander in Damascus, shortly after the regime had killed at least 10,000 people in the city of Hama.On his office wall hung a painting of an old Hama neighborhood with one of the waterwheels for which the city was famous. “That is our lovely city of Hama,” he told me calmly. “It‘s perfectly peaceful. You should visit it someday.”He knew that I knew this neighborhood had been leveled to the ground.Back then, under the regime of Hafez al-As

Feb. 14, 2012

[Kim Seong-kon] Expanding horizons of literary study

Since the 1960s, literary research has considerably expanded its scope to include cultural studies, and during the process has shed light on the alienated, the marginal and the excluded. Accordingly, students and scholars have embarked on literary studies exploring the possibilities of understanding and communicating with others who are different from us. As a result, professors of English literature now extensively cover minority studies, ethnic studies, women’s studies and gay/lesbian studies,

Feb. 14, 2012

[Kim Seong-kon] Expanding horizons of literary study

[Park Sang-seek] Syrian crisis: Its implications for world order, N. Korea

A draft resolution on the Syrian crisis submitted by Morocco in the U.N. Security Council was defeated by the exercise of the veto by China and Russia o Feb. 4. The other permanent members, France, the U.S. and the U.K., condemned the two countries vehemently. At the moment, it is very difficult to foresee how the crisis will evolve.The draft resolution, if passed, would have forced the Syrian president to cede power to the opposition, even if it did not contain any explicit provision calling fo

Feb. 13, 2012

[Park Sang-seek] Syrian crisis: Its implications for world order, N. Korea

[David Ignatius] Nixon’s great decision on China

WASHINGTON ― This month marks the 40th anniversary of an event so unexpected that it created a phrase that’s become part of our political lexicon: The shorthand is “Nixon goes to China,” meaning a moment in which a leader reverses his past positions to do something that is shocking but beneficial. Richard Nixon is hardly a role model, overall; he was a devious president who encouraged illegal actions by his subordinates. But he was a clever strategist ― never more so than in the opening to China

Feb. 13, 2012

[David Ignatius] Nixon’s great decision on China

Vilsack makes U.S. agriculture a high-growth area

The most avid political junkies probably couldn’t name five U.S. agriculture secretaries; Tom Vilsack, the current occupant of the post, may be about to join that short list. The farm sector is one of the few bright spots in a rough U.S. economy. Vilsack, the popular former governor of Iowa, who has an appreciation of policy and politics, is one of the success stories of the Obama administration. Usually, the Agriculture Department, started under Abraham Lincoln and celebrating its 150th birthda

Feb. 13, 2012

Mortgage settlement picks winners, leaves losers

The $25 billion mortgage-abuse settlement between the states and five top banks that was announced Thursday won’t solve the nation’s housing crisis. Far from it.It will not restore the housing market. The money involved is a fraction of the amount that would make a dent in that.It will not provide direct assistance to the vast majority of distressed homeowners. Most owners aren’t eligible for its most valuable provision ― principal reduction ― because loans guaranteed by the government-controlle

Feb. 13, 2012

Gay marriage in U.S. a dead political issue

Eight years is an aeon in politics. Witness the waning potency of the gay-marriage issue.During the 2004 campaign, Republican strategists put gay marriage on referendum ballots in key swing states, as a “wedge” issue to unnerve Democrats and gin up the conservative base for President George W. Bush. The Massachusetts high court had just ruled for legalization, and hostility toward the concept was the centrist position in America.This is no longer true.Granted, social conservatives voiced anger l

Feb. 13, 2012

Foreclosure settlement falls short, still worth the wait

In any out-of-court settlement for alleged wrongdoing, the test of whether prosecutors got a good deal rests on the answers to three questions: Does it hold the miscreants accountable? Does it make victims whole? And does it prevent similar misconduct in the future? Thursday’s $25 billion agreement by five banks to end a 16- month investigation of abusive foreclosure practices fails on the first two counts. And we won’t know for some time whether it is successful on the third. Nonetheless, the d

Feb. 12, 2012

[David Ignatius] The chaos in Cairo revolution

WASHINGTON ― What kind of democratic revolution in Egypt is it that brings charges against 19 American NGO workers who have been advocating democracy? The answer is that it’s a confused revolution, looking for people to blame for its troubles. The U.S. should stifle its anger for now ― and avoid a hasty cutoff of aid that would make a bad situation worse. The Egyptian revolution, a year on, is struggling to establish a government amid chaos. The spontaneous, leaderless uprising that toppled Pres

Feb. 12, 2012

[David Ignatius] The chaos in Cairo revolution

On the Web, no one cares if you write like a dog

It’s been going on for too long, right before our eyes. Inevitably, someone was going to blow the whistle, and wouldn’t you know it would be Felix Salmon, the famous financial blogger for Reuters? The name Felix Salmon (for some reason) always makes me think of those plastic singing fish that were all the rage a few years ago. You remember: They appeared to be mounted on a board (also plastic) and they would burst remorselessly into song and could be impossible to turn off without opening up the

Feb. 12, 2012